With individual golds at two Indoor World Series Finals, seven Archery World Cup Finals and three World Field Championships, Ellison has built one of the most decorated resumés in the sport – and remained a perennial contender through persistence and consistency.
His number one seed in Madrid is not only a marker of recovery but also a reward for the disciplined work behind the scenes.
“The weather was a lot better than the last World Cups,” the 2019 World Archery Champion added. “In Montana, it’s finally starting to get good for shooting outdoors, and I’ve just been able to practise a bunch.”
“My wife’s been giving me a ton of help and time, letting me shoot as much as I can.”
In recurve women’s qualifying, reigning Olympic Champion Lim Sihyeon secured her third consecutive World Cup pole position after also topping the ranking rounds in Shanghai and Antalya.
With afternoon sessions in Madrid pushed later than usual – beginning at 17h30 local time rather than 14h00 – archers have had more time to rest and prepare. Lim said the change made a difference.
“I took a long nap and ate a really big lunch,” she laughed. “I think eating a big lunch gave me a lot of energy throughout the qualification.”
“In the matches, I’m going to try to apply what I did during the qualification – things like good posture, aiming off and game sense – even better.”
Action resumes tomorrow in Madrid with recurve team eliminations in the morning, followed by compound eliminations in the late afternoon.
